Serena Williams’s grand slam singles career will live on for at least another match. On one of her favorite stages, Serena, a 23-time grand slam singles champion, beat Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, 6-3, 6-3, in front of a celebrity-packed capacity crowd on an electric opening night at the US Open.
This win came just a few weeks after she announced that she planned to step away from tennis after the US Open to focus on having another child and on her business interests, though she was not shy about showing ambivalence about her decision.
“I absolutely love being out there,” Serena said after the win. “The more tournaments I play, the more I feel I can belong out there.” Serena will have a tougher test on Wednesday against No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, whom she has never faced.
Throughout the match, and especially in the final games as Serena bulldozed across the line, there were glimpses of the power and athleticism that had made Serena a boundary-breaking force that changed both her sport and women’s athleticism. And on a heavy, late-summer New York evening, on the court where she captured her first grand slam singles title in 1999, it was enough to topple Kovinic.
The match seemed to be as much of a gift for the boldfaced names and everyone else at Arthur Ashe Stadium as it was a chance for Serena to blast some final serves and winners, no matter what the numbers on the scoreboard said when it was over.
Queen Latifah was there, and so was former President Bill Clinton, Anna Wintour the Vogue editor, and Katie Couric, and Matt Damon, and Hugh Jackman, and Naomi Osaka, who just the other day had called Serena the biggest force in the sport.
Serena also plans to play in the doubles competition with her sister Venus, herself a seven-time grand slam singles champion, but Monday was always going to be Serena Williams’s valedictory, or the start of it, a night that, win-orlose, would be a celebration.
Serena made sure to show up for the party, and so did her daughter, Olympia, four, who wore a matching outfit with her hair in beads evoking a young Serena, and nearly stole the show. “It’s like Serena 2.0,” Serena said of the life that awaits her when this is all done.
(New York Times News Service)
